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‘Off market’ — the new way to sell your home

Jayne Dowle

June 28 2013, 1:01am, The Times

Mike Taylor with his wife, Joanna, and their two small children, Matilda and EdwardGabriel Szabo/Guzelian

It’s the new way to hide what you’re worth. Sell your house privately, without advertising or even a sign outside, and no one will know how much it’s on the market for. The neighbours won’t have anything to gossip about. There will be no dinner-party maths about how much it’s gained in value — or lost — since you bought it. Time-wasters won’t come sniffing round. And you won’t have to spend every weekend brewing fresh coffee and banishing the dogs.

As Toby Cockcroft, a Yorkshire estate agent, puts it: “The only time when people will see you’re moving is when they see the van taking the furniture out.”

With a private sale, you’re in control, and Cockcroft, who runs his own property consultancy, DHP…